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President Cuomo? N.Y. governor's agenda fuels talk of 2020 run

Speculation that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is plotting a run for president grew louder this week after a high-profile appearance with Hillary Clinton and a state budget that some observers say reads like a map to the White House.

Speculation that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is plotting a run for president grew louder this week after a high-profile appearance with Hillary Clinton and a state budget that some observers say reads like a map to the White House.

Speculation that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is plotting a run for president grew louder this week after a high-profile appearance with Hillary Clinton and a state budget that some observers say reads like a map to the White House.

The second-term Democrat appeared with Clinton to celebrate passage of one of his budget's major achievements, a first-in-the nation free tuition plan for students from middle-class families.

Other measures in the budget include juvenile justice reform and middle-class tax breaks.

Some experts said by focusing on middle-class angst Cuomo, 59, is positioning himself as a centrist in the mold of Clinton who supports social policies championed by progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

For his part, Cuomo sidestepped questions about his political future and said he is focusing on his job as governor.

He held an event in Lake Placid Friday touting the state budget's benefits for North Country communities.

Among other projects, the plan includes:

$125 million in incentives for Norsk Titanium's new Plattsburgh facility

$75 million for road and bridge construction projects

$38 million for economic development at Plattsburgh International Airport

$32 million to rebuild the former Frontier Town amusement park

$20 million for upgrades and improvements at Whiteface and Gore mountain ski resorts

$10 million for a Plattsburgh downtown revitalization development

$7 million to promote North Country tourism

$7 million to fight heroin and opioid addiction

There was previously wide speculation that Cuomo's father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, would also run for president in 1988 and 1992.

Andrew Cuomo has already said he is running for re-election in 2018 despite the speculation about his political future.